Monday, April 18, 2011

Grand Opening | First day

Welcome to my new blog home! In true fashion this week [Mon-Fri] I will be doing some fun giveaways - be sure to tell your friends/family to stop by. This week I am going catch everyone up on what I have been doing, seeing, playing, creating, etc. Please take some time to look around and if you see any hiccups please let me know.

Let's get this Monday started with my re-designed office. I posted the initial reveal here and you can always see my 2009 move here. The 2009 posts offer a more detailed insight into how I organize all my stuff.

I received several questions on how I start or where I get my inspiration for my office and projects I am working on. I always quickly answer with: in multiple places! Here are some of the tools I use and how I use them:

iPhone - quick, down and dirty shots of places I travel; hotel rooms, offices, colors of the city, restaurants. I make mental notes, but prefer to actually capture anything that really inspired me by taking notes on my phone and sending them to myself, also reminding myself to look at the photo too. Easy peasy.

Your feet/car - well if you don't travel as much as I do then you have to get out and see what's around you. Might be a little surprised! I find so much inspiration just around town - antique shops, retail stores, coffee shops...

Magazines - I still love the paper and miss some of my favorite mags! Right now I am reading: Cloth Paper Scissors - Studios, Where Women Create, Dwell, House Beautiful, Country Living, Architectural Digest, InStyle, Fast Company, WIRED, Southern Living, Real Simple, and Whole Living. I am usually a 'ripper' reading through the magazine and ripping out what interests me. Always have a pen near by so you can write notes on why you are taking the time to rip it out!If I don't need to use the information right away the rip out will get filed away by theme into my lateral file drawers. A good friend of mine uses HUGE three ring binders -

Flickr - I am probably on Flickr more than I am on Facebook. This is such a great place to find inspiration! So easy to share and upload your photos - I also find that the 'community' part of sharing is very low profile. You can join groups that share a very niche interest - for example there are several groups on the topic of craft rooms, do a search on Flickr for: Art Studio, Craft Rooms, Etsy Open Studios, My crafting room, Operation:Sewing Room Organization. Those are a few that I have joined. When you find something you like, mark it as a favorite so you can always reference it later.

Pinterest - I have loved this site since it first launched, I was on pins and needles waiting for my invite to come through! it's very easy now to pin what I find on the internet, pin it to the appropriate pinboard and move on. Now I am patiently waiting for the iPhone app [yes, there's an app for that] so when I take my inspiration shots all I need to do is post them to my Pinterest pinboard. This place is full of eye candy - the type that sucks you in for a minimum of three hours your first time in.

Blogs. Lots and lots of blog reading. I am finally using Google Reader, not sure why I wasn't doing that before [I am finding myself liking a lot of things about Google lately] Be sure to check out my blogroll and as I make updates I will let you know. If you are not using Google Reader I highly recommend that you check it out.

TODAY's GIVEAWAY is a stack of past issues of Where Women Create and a few Cloth Paper Scissors-Studio. Leave a comment to be entered in the random drawing and answering this question:

Looks great! I love the font used on your tabs. I've got a Pinterest account but haven't taken the time to figure it all out. For now, blogs and magazines are where I find my inspiration...love looking back to last year's issues to see how trends have changed.